Quick answer:
As long as the payment does not involve fraud (such as with an illegal lottery), there is no law in the U.S. that prohibits sending cash in the mail. But what about sending cash in the mail overseas?
A year ago I tracked down the address of an old friend in Spain. We'd worked together in the early 1960s and I'd just learned he was now living on a very small pension in Zaragosa. Thinking to give him a pleasant surprise, I enclosed some large-denomination euro bills with my letter, stuck a 98-cent stamp on the envelope, and dropped the cash in the mail at our local post office.
Imagine my surprise when I received a letter back from him, chastizing me for including the cash. ("It's against the law here in Spain," he said, "to send currency in the mail. Didn't you know that?")
Actually, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it is NOT against the law to mail cash--assuming as a gift or for a legitimate purpose--from the United States to any other country in the world. If any of you readers know otherwise, do let me know!
What about sending cash from another country to the U.S. or Canada? That depends upon the country. For example, when we lived in Spain under Generalissimo Franco, the Spanish peseta was a blocked currency. That is, it was illegal to send peseta-bills out of the country. A few odd countries still have blocked currencies so in such cases it is indeed illegal to mail cash out of the country.
But for we Americans and Canadians, no such problem exists.
HOWEVER:
Is it safe to send currency in the mail?
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Labels: cash in the mail, illegal to send cash, safe to send cash, sending cash overseas
Privacy blog post by JJ Luna at 2:01 PM
